Vincent de Rooij, born in Vogelwaarde, the Netherlands, in 1962. Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.
Fellow (1 September 2013 – 30 June 2014)
THE INTERARTICULATION OF CLASS AND GENDER THROUGH NORMATIVE AND SUBVERSIVE LANGUAGE PRACTICES
Research Question
How are class and gender types constructed, reproduced, and subverted through language practices?
Project Description
This project focusses on the Dutch province of Limburg, a peripheral place where local language is spoken with pride in formal as well as informal settings. Speaking Limburgian works as a strong index of local belonging: by speaking Limburgian instead of Dutch, speakers distance themselves from ‘Holland’, the administrative and cultural centre of the nation state. Similar centre-periphery antagonisms can be found within Limburg as well. Given that Limburgians always find themselves in one or more centre-periphery constellations, this project looks at how class and gender based types are evoked in performing Self and Other, where Self and Other can alternatingly be linked to either centre or periphery, depending on people’s punctuated (in time and place) experiences of who they are (or wish to be).
Selected Publications
1) (2013) (with Leonie Cornips). Selfing and othering through categories of race, place, and language among minority youths in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. In: Peter Siemund, Ingrid Gogolin, Monika Edith Schulz and Julia Davydova (eds.), Multilingualism and language diversity in urban areas: Acquisition, identities, space, education. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 129-164.
2) (2012) (met Leonie Cornips en Irene Stengs). Carnavalesk taalgebruik en de constructie van lokale identiteiten: Een pleidooi voor taalcultuur als onderzoeksveld [Carnivalesque language use and the construction of local identities: A plea for languageculture as a field of research]. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 1(1): 15-40.
3) (2008). (with Johannes Fabian). Ethnography. In: Tony Bennett and John Frow (eds.), The Sage handbook of cultural analysis. London: Sage. 613-631.